"SNOWMAGEDDON": Well, that didn't take long. Four days after Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter, Pennsylvania and most other Eastern states are being walloped by a severe winter storm, which may dump up to 3 feet of snow in some places. The gigantic storm system stretched for hundreds of miles across the Eastern Seaboard on Friday, unleashing heavy rain and snow as it smashed into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., are taking the brunt of it — their second wintry beatdown this season, what the Washington Post calls "Snowmageddon" — but virtually the entire Eastern United States is feeling the storm's wrath. States across the Southeast were already being soaked as early as Thursday night, and anticipation of the approaching chaos quickly began disrupting life along the Atlantic coast. Amtrak announced Thursday that it was suspending nearly all southbound service from the nation's capital, while several airlines have begun canceling flights departing Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington on Friday and Saturday. Traffic also snarled D.C. streets Friday afternoon, presumably as commuters raced to get home before the worst of the inclement weather arrived. The National Weather Service reports that "significant amounts of snow are expected or occurring," which, combined with strong winds, "will make travel very hazardous to near impossible." See MNN's explainer on how snow forms for more about this year's winter weather and about snowstorms in general. (Sources: Washington Post, CNN, National Weather Service)

 

PELICAN GRIEF: For the second straight year, something strange is happening to brown pelicans along the Oregon coast. About 1,000 have been found dead, starving or begging for food over the last few weeks, mysteriously sticking around while most other brown pelicans have already made their annual winter migration to California. "In one parking lot, there were people in cars surrounded by pelicans asking for food. We have never seen that before," one Oregon wildlife official tells the LA Times. "These birds literally have lost all fear of humans." Experts are baffled by the die-offs and odd behavior, and are considering everything from algae blooms to ocean currents to fish kills as a potential cause. After fewer than 100 pelicans spent winter in Oregon each year from 1918 to 2002, the number jumped to 554, and up to 3,647 in 2008. This year's total hasn't been tallied yet, but it's estimated to be around 3,100. "If there's a downturn in production in the system for whatever reason, we absolutely know that lots of organisms are going to starve. That's how the ecosystem regulates itself," says a University of Washington seabird expert. "And it can be pretty ugly." (Source: Los Angeles Times)

 

PIKAS' PEAK: The pika — a tiny, temperature-sensitive rabbit relative that lives high in the Rocky Mountains — has been denied protection under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Friday. Pikas are covered in chinchilla-like fur that protects them from cold in their chilly mountain habitat, but this also makes them extremely intolerant of heat — even brief exposure to temperatures above 78 degrees Fahrenheit can kill them. Conservationists blasted the Obama administration Thursday for the ruling, which one biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity called "a political decision that ignores science and the law." Because rising temperatures can cause such drastic differences at high altitudes, many experts worry that climate change could soon wipe out this fragile species. But not all pika populations are declining, and the FWS said in its ruling that endangered species protections are unwarranted. (Sources: Seattle Times, MSNBC)

 

CLOSING CLIMATEGATE: Embattled climatologist Michael Mann (pictured) has been cleared of scientific misconduct by an academic board of inquiry at Penn State University, closing a tumultuous and widely misunderstood chapter in the history of climate science. While Mann has been absolved of charges that he manipulated data, he's not completely out of the woods — a second Penn State panel will now investigate whether he undermined public faith in the scientific evidence behind climate change. Still, the acquittal is a vindication for Mann, creator of the famous "hockey stick" graph that shows global temperatures spiking in recent decades. Mann was one of several American and British climate scientists whose e-mails were hacked last year and published online, resulting in the "Climategate" scandal and leading some climate skeptics to argue that all climate science worldwide was somehow disproved. While the Climategate e-mails show unsettling pettiness and conspiratorial behavior among many climate scientists — as well as withholding public data in some cases — the Penn State review nonetheless clears Mann from the most serious charges that he misled the public. For more about the story, check out this post from MNN's Karl Burkhart. (Source: Philadelphia Inquirer)

 

NO-SPIN ZONE: Wind turbines just have one job: spin. So when residents of 11 Minnesota cities began noticing that their local turbines seemed to always be frozen in place, they had little patience. "If people see a water tower, they expect it to stand still," the city manager of North St. Paul tells the NY Times. "If there's a turbine, they want it to turn." Local officials still aren't sure why these turbines aren't spinning, but the state's legendary cold weather is a leading suspect. These particular turbines aren't new; they're 20-year-old transplants that were recently relocated from California, a shock that could put anyone out of commission. "Given Minnesota weather," says a representative of Avant Energy, the company that manages the turbines, "there may be days when people can't work out there." (Source: New York Times)

 

— Russell McLendon